Recently moved into a house with a large mature apple tree (possibly cortland) that is pushing about 25 feet in height. It hasn't been pruned much over its life, just left to grow on its own. In our first season here, it dropped most of its apples quite small in early summer. We sprayed it to encourage larger fruit growth, which worked well. However, this season we're stuck with a serious worry that the weight of the fruit is going to break the long branches (we've already lost one branch that was already strained and a few others are flexing downward pretty sharply).

Is this a legit worry that the tree will lose a tonne of branches in one season?